Four of the five teams started league play this past weekend.  With a pair of big road wins over Uitca and Manhattanville, Elmira jumped right to the top of the standings.
The Soaring Eagles weekend started out at Utica, and the Pioneers got their 3,800 fans into the game early when Steve Zappia scored just 6:39 into the contest.  Despite being outshot 22-13, Utica held the 1-0 lead into the third period.
Elmira kept working away, and D’arcy Oakes scored at 6:10 of the third period to tie the game.  Joe Gagne added another goal with less than five minutes remaining to give Elmira the lead, and then Jesper Strale chipped in an empty-netter to seal the 3-1 victory.
“We did not have a ton of great scoring chances, and it caught up to us in the third period,” said Utica coach Gary Heenan.  “We had solid goaltending, but we got a few unlucky bounces, and we didn’t play as well on the power play as we would have liked.  Elmira is a very good team, and they deserve a lot of credit for sticking with it through 60 full minutes.”
Utica’s only goal came on a power play, one of seven extra-man opportunities on the night.
Elmira continued its weekend road trip to Manhattanville Saturday night, and again fell behind in the first period 2-1. 
The second period was the Kevin Willer show for the Soaring Eagles.  Willer scored three goals and assisted on another as Elmira surged to a 5-3 lead by the end of the second period.  Willer wasn’t done though, and added a short-handed goal 3:59 into the third period to seal the 6-3 victory.
“[Willer] has been our most consistent player this year,” said Elmira coach Aaron Saul.  “He is an exceptional player at both ends of the rink.  He is our Mighty Mite.  He is only 5 feet 6 inches, but he does it all.”
In other action around the league, Hobart shutout Manhattanville Friday night 4-0.  Three different freshmen, Peter Ryan, Bronson Kovacs, and Ian Coleman, scored their first goals as Statesmen during the game.   It was a very rough game, including 24 penalties evenly distributed between the two teams for 59 total minutes.
Outside the conference, the ECAC West had a perfect weekend.  Hobart finished off its weekend trip dropping Salve Regina 5-1 on Saturday.
Utica got back on the winning side of the ledger with a 7-1 drubbing of Saint Michel’s on Saturday.  It was the first time these two teams had ever met.
Lastly, Neumann fended off a tenacious Curry team 5-4 on Sunday.  Cory Park scored a pair of goals while Dave Gervais added a goal and two assists.

Oswego prevailed on Friday in its big match up against Geneseo, 4-2. It wasn’t easy.
“It was what we expected, a tight, checking battle,” Oswego coach Ed Gosek said. “Geneseo works extremely hard. They had opportunities, and our goalie played very well. We had opportunities, and their goalie played very well.”
“I think we did a good job making them play a sloppy game for the first two periods,” Geneseo coach Chris Schultz said. “We were in a good position to win the game.”
Jon Whitelaw gave the Lakers the lead at 12:20, but 1:34 later, Zachary Vit tied it up thanks to a turnover at the blue line. Andrew Mather scored the first of his two goals off a rebound to give Oswego the 2-1 lead at the first intermission.
Then, Mather was involved in the turning point of the game when he took an interference penalty late in the first period, which carried over to the second. When the penalty was over, Mather bolted out of the penalty box behind the Geneseo defense, received a pass from Ian Boots, and went in alone against Adrian Rubeniuk, beating him over the blocker at 1:01.
“That was a big goal that took the winds out of their sails,” Gosek said.
“We caught a really bad break with one of their guys coming out of the penalty box,” Schultz said. “That was the turning point in the game.”
Vit got his second of the night five minutes later to cut the lead to one, which it remained for the rest of the period.
“We had opportunities to make it 3-3,” Schultz said. “Then, in the third period, we took a bad penalty. It changed the momentum. Soon thereafter, they scored a two-on-one goal.”
That penalty was Carson Schell for cross checking. Just 16 seconds after the penalty expired, Matt Singleton gave Oswego the clinching goal at 12:41.
“It allowed us to relax,” Gosek said.
At this point, Geneseo had to do what they didn’t want to do, open the game up and take chances, leaving themselves exposed. Though the Lakers didn’t take advantage of it on the scoreboard, they did outshoot Geneseo in the final period, 26-6. Overall, Oswego levied 50 shots on Geneseo’s net to 22 by the Ice Knights.
Andrew Hare made 20 saves for the win, while Rubeniuk stopped 46.
Other Highlights
– In a back-and-forth contest which saw nine goals scored in the second period, Cortland prevailed over Brockport, 7-5. Brockport led 2-0, only to be tied, then retake the lead, 3-2. Cortland reversed the score, taking a 4-3 lead when Brockport did the same to take a 5-4 lead. Cortland scored the final three goals, the last on an empty-netter, for the final score reversal.
– Geneseo had a tougher time than expected in beating Cortland, 4-2. The Ice Knights took a 3-0 lead, only to have Cortland fight back with two scores, the latter on a short-handed tally by Stephen Nardi. Geneseo then got a short-handed goal of its own by Clint Olson to clinch the game.
– After letting up the first goal of the game, Fredonia scored five answered goals for a 5-1 win over Morrisville. Mark Friesen made 27 saves for the win.
– Buffalo State also had an easy time against Morrisville, winning 7-2. Trevor McKinney and Mike Connolly scored twice while Kevin Carr made 31 saves.
– Oswego got another 50 shots in Saturday’s game, easily beating Brockport, 7-1, as they scored twice in the first 1:34. Jon Whitelaw scored twice and Zack Josepher got four assists. Dan Jones made 27 saves.
– Vick Schlueter scored twice for Plattsburgh as its defeated Potsdam, 4-1. Schlueter’s second goal was on a power play, the first man-advantage goal let up by Potsdam this year. Josh Leis stopped 20 shots for the win.

First, the MASCAC and ECAC Northeast opened the season nearly two weeks after their national counterparts. Then, there was little uniformity in the start of the season for each team.
In a three-day stretch of Friday through Sunday, two MASCAC teams and six ECAC Northeast teams opened the season, but Sunday afternoon brought one of the higher-profile nonconference matchups, as Curry College, ranked 15 in the USCHO.com preseason Division III men’s poll, lost 5-4 to No. 11 Neumann College Sunday in suburban Philadelphia.
The Colonels tied the game at 3-3 on a pair of goals less than three minutes into the second period on Greg Fosso’s tally at 2:16 and Steven Mohler’s power-play goal 41 seconds later.
But midway through the third, Neumann’s Cory Park broke a 4-4 tie with his second goal of the game.
The Colonels open their ECAC Northeast schedule at 2 p.m. Saturday at Salve Regina.
Also in the ECAC Northeast
Becker defeated Stonehill, 5-1, on Friday (Stonehill’s second loss to an ECAC Northeast opponent in three days, after Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to Johnson and Wales), then lost to Suffolk 4-1 in the four-team Becker Ice Breaker Tournament in Marlborough, Mass., a nonconference game though an ECAC Northeast matchup.
Suffolk and Becker will meet two more times this season in conference play. Becker hosts the Rams at 1 p.m. January 28, while Suffolk hosts Becker in the regular-season finale for both teams February 18, with the time to be announced.
It might not necessarily be a game for all the marbles, but it will be for for some of them in an ECAC Northeast contest.
Suffolk (2-0) meanwhile, continues its nonconference and tournament slate on Friday as part of the Pepperidge Farm tournament Thursday and Friday in Worcester, Mass.. It will be another ECAC Northeast/MASCAC scramble, as Worcester State, Suffolk, Johnson and Wales, and Western New England make up the field.
Also in the MASCAC
In the MASCAC, Plymouth State defeated Southern New Hampshire, 6-0, in its season opener Saturday, outshooting New Hampshire 41-7, as Kyle Greco scored a goal and three assists in the win.
In a game on neutral ice — and in a bigger facility — Westfield State defeated Western New England 4-2 Friday at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass., a precursor to Adirondack’s 2-1 win over Springfield in an AHL contest.
After Western New England’s Alan Martin cut the lead to 3-2 less than three minutes into the third, the Owls had to concentrate on defense, not getting insurance until Billy Miller scored an empty-net goal with 42-seconds left in regulation.
Westfield State won despite being outshot 10-6 in the third period, which begs the question: Does quality trump quantity?
Other openers
Salem State faces Wentworth at 7 p.m. Monday  in the season opener for both teams.
Nichols opens its season against Westfield State at 8:10 p.m. at Levy Rink in Harrisville, R.I., about 20 miles from Nichols’s campus in Dudley, Mass.
Fitchburg State opens its season at 7 p.m. Tuesday against New England College.
Massachusetts-Dartmouth opens its season at 8:10 p.m. Wednesday at Becker.